It stems from the fact that video games are an entertainment form that is composed of many different elements. The big ones are: gameplay, competition, visuals, sound, and story. While in your point of view the story is what takes precedence, others might find gameplay, competition, visuals, or sound more fitting for themselves. The ones who are rushing through the game are probably the ones who love both the gameplay and competition aspects of video games. It's just a simple case of different people enjoying different things.

Your keyboard should be more than enough for hotkeys, I find that past the two side buttons that are featured on most premium mice (very good for activating voice chat in Ventrilo or Teamspeak, since it must be held down), you don't really need the extra buttons on a mouse. For this reason I think the Razer Deathadder is a great all-purpose mouse (great for FPS's because of the precision, and just fine for other genres). The comfort of it is also great and I love it more than my Logitech G5 and NZXT Storm Sentinel Advance.

I think the most helpful thing for a diamond or master league player would be to have good micro. Macro can be learned by anyone, but the X factor in these games will always be innovative strategy/ decision making and MICRO. When in higher leagues if you're doing those cookie cutter builds, you better have top notch micro because you can bet that their macro is just as solid. Or have a strat that owns face.

Honestly in Diamond simply having better mechanics and planned build orders will win you games, you don't need good micro at all. I can't personally comment on the Masters level as I haven't been there, but I imagine the tiny edges that good micro give you still can't shine through as the skill gaps are still quite large in comparison to the tip top players amongst themselves.

Also, as for watching Starcraft and learning, in my experience the two best ways to learn the game are:

User Streams

Watching in first person gets you to learn where your focus should be on games, how you should be managing resources, and what amount of your concentration you should be putting towards different parts of the game. One of my favorite streams to watch would be that of WhiteRa, a top level Ukranian Protoss player who has good enough English to explain his motives and strategies in his gameplay. If you want to watch streams, you can head over to teamliquid where they have featured (all of the pros aee featured) streams on the right side.

Day9's Daily

Day9 is a huge figure in the Starcraft community. He was one of the best American players for a time in Brood War and is now a professional commentator in Starcraft 2 who knows what he's talking about. He hosts a daily show in which he analyzes replays (the correct way) and also has guests where he discusses build orders, strategy, and overall gameplay. He even has a very important daily, here, which goes over the mechanics of your game and how you should be playing. He's also a really funny guy.

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As for entertainment, I started off watching HDStarcraft and HuskyStarcraft like most people, but they don't compare to the real deal at all, in terms of entertainment, production quality, and game knowledge. I really recommend watching the large StarCraft 2 events to really get into watching StarCraft, for example:

All three of these are much better than HD's and Husky's solo YouTube casts. However, you might like HD and Husky. Don't fear! Husky often commentates the TSL along with DjWheat, Day9, Chill, and Artosis. And if you're into HD, you might want to check out the IPL (IGN Pro League) which is kicking off soon and features him as a caster!

The thing is, if Blizzard wasn't sure about starting the Diablo 3 beta in their last conference call, it's hard to imagine that they would have been sure that by May 5th they would be ready to begin. They would have needed to be far enough along by the February conference call that within three months or so they could say with certainty that they would be ready for beta testing. If that's the case, then the game is a little bit further along than I expected.

However, whether or not they were set on a beta date in February doesn't have a whole lot of relevance as to whether or not the beta will actually be announced in May. Because of that, I'm hoping that they will announce it. XD

I think that the beta's going to be good to go by the time of the conference call, after all, Blizzard said that their goal is to have Diablo III on shelves by the end of the year. However, I think it's wrong to use their statements in the previous conference call as any sort of solid indication, it's not a public announcement or reveal situation that most developers fear getting shit for once promised deadlines aren't met.

I personally dropped a lot of activity after Diablo 3 was announced. All the speculation and wondering was gone, so really, why stay? I'll probably be more and more active as we get closer to release, but honestly, there isn't much you can do to keep things going.